GENEVA, Ohio - The Massachusetts women's swimming & diving team posted a pair of fast swims in the 2014 Atlantic 10 Championships Wednesday, but found itself in unfamiliar territory in ninth place.

UMass scored 34 points with a second-place finish in the 800 free relay, being out-touched by Richmond by 13-hundredths of a second. The Minutewomen's time of 7:23.27 was their fastest since the school-record set at the Spire Center in last year's A-10 meet.

Those points were all the Minutewomen scored after their 200 medley relay was disqualified for leaving too early on an exchange, negating a would-be school-record swim of 1:43.08.

On Thursday, UMass will look to gain ground on the field which is led by defending champion Richmond's 80 points. George Mason is in second with 60, followed by Fordham and Rhode Island (58), Duquesne (56), George Washington and St. Bonaventure (50), La Salle (44), UMass and Saint Louis (32).

Day two action will begin with preliminaries at 10:30 a.m. The races will include the 500 free, 200 individual medley, 50 free and women's 1-meter diving. The championship finals for all seven prelim events and the 200 free relay will get underway at 6:30 p.m.

Historically, UMass has scored well in the women's diving events and this year appears to be no different. All-America senior Michaela Butler leads a group of five athletes who all have the potential reach the 8-person finals. Last season the squad put five divers into the finals and scored nearly 100 points.